Google honours tabla legend Lachhu Maharaj with a doodle on his 74th birthday

He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award, the highest award for performing artistes, in 1957.

Google on Tuesday honoured tabla maestro Lachhu Maharaj with a doodle on his 74th birthday.

Lachhu Maharaj was born on this day in 1944 as Lakshmi Narayan Singh into a family of musicians and started performing at a very young age. He died in Varanasi in 2016.

Legendary tabla player Ahmed Jaan Thirakwa, who is considered to be among the most influential percussionists in classical music, was deeply impressed by Maharaj’s performance when he was just eight years old. Thirakwa is known to have said, “I wish Lachhu was my son”, according to The Indian Express.

“Lachhu Maharaj was best known for his inherent sense of rhythm which was best exemplified in his solo performances,” Google said in a statement.

Indian classical singer Girija Devi, whom Maharaj often collaborated with, claimed “he would play for hours without repeating himself, new gats, tukras and parans, leaving his audiences awestruck.”

In 1957, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award, the highest award for performing artistes.

During the Emergency, Maharaj played the tabla inside prison as a mark of protest and refused to accept any award bestowed on him, including the Padma Shri.